Arduino has introduced the Portenta X8, not fairly its first Linux-based laptop (arms up should you bear in mind the Yun) however definitely its first to mix an SBC and a microcontroller board in a single Arm-based bundle. As noticed by CNX-Software program.
The unassuming bundle, about the identical measurement as a Raspberry Pi Zero, accommodates a quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor operating at as much as 1.8 GHz, a further Arm Cortex-M4 core as much as 400 MHz, 3D and 2D GPUs, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of eMMC storage, a USB-C port, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, a gigabit Ethernet interface (not port), and a separate microcontroller. The smaller chip, the identical as within the Portenta H7, sees an Arm Cortex-M7 core at as much as 480 MHz paired with an Arm 32-bit Cortex-M4 core at as much as 240 MHz with an adaptive real-time accelerator. There’s 1MB of RAM and 2MB of flash storage too, together with an NXP SE050C2 crypto chip for {hardware} safety together with TPM.
Whereas the board itself is comparatively naked, aside from a USB-C port for energy, knowledge and video out, it slots right into a service board (much like the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4) to reveal its IO choices, lots of that are packed into high-density connectors on the board itself. These embody USB 3, DisplayPort, 1 lane of PCIe 2.0, Gigabit Ethernet, 4 UARTs, a micro SD card slot, 4 lanes of MIPI DSI for show connections, seven GPIO pins, and the Phillips I2S and I2C interfaces for digital audio and serial communication.
The Portenta Max service board proven within the announcement video additionally options attachments for Wi-Fi antennas, RS485, and what seems to be like an RJ11 socket, together with a battery holder. Hidden on the rear seems to be a SIM card slot, and we are able to see a UBlox radio chip which may have some type of mobile connectivity.
Aimed toward skilled and industrial use somewhat than being a straight Raspberry Pi different, the Portenta comes with Yocto Linux pre-installed, and prices somewhat lots even with out the service board. It options the flexibility to containerize functions, and will be programmed utilizing Python, Java or Ruby, amongst different languages. Arduino foresees makes use of comparable to edge computing in manufacturing, autonomous autos, residence management programs, navigation programs for sensible agricultural autos, and even behavioral analytics for factories and workplaces.
On the time of writing, the Portenta X8 is offered out on the Arduino retailer, the place it’s priced at $239. The service board, for the time being, solely appears to exist within the announcement video.